What did your ______ Call you?

Tell us the story of names you've been called. Who gave you the nickname? How did you feel about it?

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Real Name (optional)

First Name

Last Name

Nickname(s)

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Who Are we?

We are a group of nine designers who believe in the power of design to act as a catalyst for change. We believe names define us for better or for worse. We believe through creativity we can expose the power of these labels.

Your Stories

Names define us, for better or for worse. Loved ones give us names of endearment. Bullies mock us with hostile labels. We respond. This is a collection of nicknames and stories about how you have been effected by things you've been called. To submit your own story, click here.

When I was little, my sisters pretended they couldn't pronounce my name, so they called me "Juicy" instead. For whatever reason I couldn't stand the name, so my mom forbade them from using it. They still did on occasion, but Natalia would quit when I fired back with "Tut-Tut," her hated nickname, and Alina's was "Gonzalez." Adventures in sibling fights :)

Tim lost his hair prematurely like before he was 18. He started shaving the ring around his ears soon there after, and has been bald since.

His girlfriend that trucks with him (a duo team) likes the feeling of his bald head, so he’s proud of it. Before he met Joan (girlfriend) he would eat “dum-dum” suckers to stay awake. It became a habit for him, and soon found that he was eating suckers all day.

Five years ago, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, so he can’t eat the suckers any longer.

He took on the nickname KoJack, after the 1970’s television show of the same name; it was a detective show. He goes by KoJack at home, on the road as his CB handle and with friends.

KoJack and Joan, drives a car hauler for dealerships across the United States.

Chuck was given the name Charles as a child. He didn’t ever like the formal name Charles, so went by Chuck as a child and until now.

He got the name Chucky Cheese, because in college, his friends thought he had poor pickup lines for the girls he was trying to date. His friends started calling him Chucky cheese because of that. (He is still single at age 58) Chuck jokes that even though his nickname is Chucky cheese, he doesn’t care for kids and is most happy on the road.

He now goes by Chuck because he likes that it rhymes with truck, he likes saying he’s “Chuck the truck driver.” He hauls freight for Wal-Mart and his CB handle is Cheeser.

Duho grew up watching the Simpsons. One of his favorite expressions was Homer’s Duho. Every time he would make a mistake, Davey would say Duho! Soon everyone was calling him that name because of how often he said it.

His Father was a baker in the small town he grew up in as well. He liked the thought of Dough as well, which reminded him of working at the bakery early in the mornings.

Now he is called duho by friends and family. He however uses the CB Handle of Rusty on the road. He got this name when he watched a movie with a truck driver who was called Rusty.

Davey/Duho/Rusty hauls Equipment for Implement dealerships across the Midwest.

Story: Growing up John was a baseball player. He enjoyed the game every summer from second grade to a Senior in High school. His position was short-stop, between first and second base. By the time he graduated from High school, he was 6′ 7″ . The nick name of short-stop was funny because he was so tall. That’s what made it stick.

Today, he goes by Short-Stop on the CB; but friends and family call him by John.

John is refer (refrigeration) driver from South Carolina to California. Carrying meat, fruitsand vegetables.

I have a bunch of nicknames, but one rules them all. When I was a young teen, I was fishing with my dad one day. The sun must have been just right to bring out the red in my hair because he looked at me and said, "Wow, you are a real tomato head!" That was shortened to "Mater Head" and eventually just "Mater." Then, because I love German, I added an umlaut to the a and became Mäter. Eventually so many people called me Mäter that I added it to my checks, and when I started a job the same day as a person whose name was similar to mine, I went by my nickname to avoid confusion. I worked that job for eight years, so between family, friends, and coworkers, there are loads of people who don't know me by any other name. All because of a sunny fishing trip.

Story: Bob got his nickname one night when he was out with his friends. Mike started calling him Bub while playing pool. The other three started calling him Bubba; after being called Bubba Gump (from the movie Forest Gump).

He carried on the name when he started truck driving. Because he travels with his great dane, for security, his CB handle is Bubba Dane.

Doggy, because I have pigtails on my hair, and it looks like doggy. At first I don't like others make a nickname because of my hair. But afterward, it 's not relate to hair anymore and doggy sounds cute and friendly.

Growing up, I was called by my middle name - Scott - instead of my given name - Marvin. The reason was that my parents were divorced and my biological father's name was Marvin, as was his father. My mother said, "It'll be a cold day in hell before I call you Marvin." When I was between 18-20 I found it easier to go by my given name and transitioned to going by Marvin. Much of my family still calls me Scott, which is fine.My sister called me "Scooter" as a derivative of Scott. We later got a cat that we named Scooter...

In High School, some of my classmates called me "Space" because I could get so absorbed in something that I'd be oblivious to other things going on. When I did loosen my focus and become aware of the world around me, often there'd be a moment of spaciness and "huh?" while reorienting. Hence the nickname. I didn't really mind that much because I was comfortable in my plans and goals. Our h.s. class song was John Denver's "Looking for Space." Classmates would look at me on the refrain. I thought that was funny. Now, forty years later, I've been happy and creative in life -- the ability to focus and concentrate is a big part of my success.

This name was given to me by a group that hung around our childhood home/street. I didn't like the name-it used to really upset me. I would talk to my parents about the name calling-and that was good, but it didn't stop the negative name that continued. It was horrible. It ended when I moved away, but it returns when I go home and bump into the bullies, who still live in the same town, have dead-end jobs and are still living in that time-when they would verbally abuse others

Waddle butt (Co-workers)Pumpkin (Grandpa)Muffin (Harassing Co-worker)Sammie Boo Boo (Co-workers)Sam B Trippin (Cause I face planted in front of a group for friends)Sam Bam Bam (By a friend cause that thought I was cool)Trouble (By my parents because they said if anyone messed with me they would be messing with trouble)

Waddle-butt: I didn't know I was being called this till a few months after working there, but my coworkers were calling me waddle butt behind my back because they said it always looked like I was walking down a cat walk. I was younger so it hurt my feelings. I ended up working on how I walked so I wouldn't get made fun of. Now that I am older I wish I hadn't

My father always gives the people he cares for nicknames. Everyone of his brothers and sisters got one and mine became "doodle bug". I never thought much about it but the truth is 1. I would have been upset had he not given me one and 2. When he calls me Doodle as an adult mother, I do feel close to him

My last name is Wood.So to no surprise. Everyone has called me Woody for years. It's never bothered me. And more people know Woody than those who know my real name. I do get asked ( why do they call you woody?)I have multiple comebacks for that question.

My nickname is Poppet. The story is that my parents didn't know my gender before birth. Since my Dad was stationed in Australia at the time and "poppet" is a term of endearment for a small, innocent child, that's what my parents used when referring to the not-as-yet born me. After birth, they kept it up. I didn't know my name is Jennifer until roll call the first day of kindergarten. She kept calling "Jennifer" and I was looking around to see which of my classmates had that name. She told me that I am Jennifer and I was insulted. I yelled "no, my name is Poppet!" The evil, nasty teacher made me go home and learn my name. Since Jennifer was so common a name at the time I was born, I used Poppet outside of school. I still do. The funny thing is that my cousin was born 5 days before me in Ghana. If he had been a girl, he would have gotten the name Jennifer Lynn and my parents would have needed a new name for me. I probably still would have ended up using Poppet.

Abba- I was given the nickname because when I was asked my name at a young age. I responded "Abba" which was my way of pronouncing Raymond. When I was asked if my name was Abba, I would get upset because I knew it was Raymond

My Dad's friend used to call me "Baby Davis" when I was a kid. I hated it. I would always say "I'm not that!" when he called me Baby Davis. But now that I'm older, I've kinda grown fond of it. That nickname actually combined itself with another nickname, D-Walt (Walter is my middle name) and created the supernickname "Babydwalt".

A friend from long ago used to tease me because I worked all the time....she would say poor lil phee-wup work so hard in this silly voice to get me to smile/react ... it was noted in public and then many many years later on Facebook by my brother ... it has always been neutral for me...

When I was growing up I had a couple nicknames.Thumper was a nickname for my brother, sister, myself, and my dad who was a teacher. It was because we lived in Australia before moving to a small town in Nebraska. It was a reference to kangaroos.

My most often used nickname in elementary was "K-ran I-ran She-ran It-ran". I liked the nickname because I thought it funny to hear kids say the whole thing. It was shortened to K-ran when I got into high school. The nickname was based off my name, Karin.

Nicknames: Jelly and all of its iterationsSmelly jellyJelly bean, beanerJellyfishJelly rollJelly belly Etc

I've had my nickname since before I can remember. It's been a conversation starter, a way to tell who my friends were, a help in my career, and a cause of some confusion. It's who I am though, so it's all worth it. I was about 1, my parents were in a choir, preparing for a concert at which they'd sing Mozart's Regina Coeli. My dad was singing through the house, and saw me with jelly all over my face. He exclaimed, Christina! Jelly! And inserted my name (it rhymes, you know) into the song. My whole life, the only time anyone in my family called me anything but Jelly was when I was in trouble. In school, everyone only knew me by Jelly-even the teachers and administrators. I remember one time we took a standardized test and the teacher called out "Christina" and everyone was confused, because there was nobody by that name in class. I hated the name Christina. It felt too formal, and none of its nicknames fit me in the least, so I've never introduced myself as Christina-always Jelly.When we moved away from my childhood home, at the age of 10, that was the hardest transition. None of my teachers were willing to call me Jelly. So only a few of my friends did. I finally had to learn to like my real name, or at least tolerate it. In high school, I had a teacher tell me it was "inappropriate" -enter some interesting sex ed lessons with my friends who were less naive. The majority of my high school and college teachers accepted that I was Jelly. It certainly made it easier to differentiate between the 3 (K/Ch)ristinas in many of my classes. When I got married, I seriously considered changing my name legally, or at least adding it on. But I didn't know then what I know now. I thought I'd need to have a common name so I could get good jobs. I did, but now, I'll never have a common job again. Oh well. Now, I'm a children's entertainer. The response I get when people hear my name is usually along the lines of "oh, that's so perfect!" If I decide to be a pirate or a clown, I can be jelly bean. If I'm a mermaid, I'm jelly fish. Normally, I'm just Jelly, but it's my job to make people smile, and almost without fail, all I have to do is introduce myself! The only problem is, when I get calls from any official sort of thing (insurance, etc.) And answer the phone with a chipper, "Blazing Balloons, this is Jelly!" The people on the other end get confused. Such is life. They usually get over it, sometimes even chat about my life's work with me! I was often the butt of jokes, but I'm the type of person who just laughs along-maybe even contributes if the jokes are funny. Maybe having this name contributed to that bit of my personality. Maybe it's part of the reason I'm an entertainer. Who knows. But I'm Jelly, I'll always be Jelly. (Grownups who knew me as a kid, and now again as an adult are often confused. They don't know my real name, but feel weird calling a mom of 3 by a silly nickname. I always have to reassure them multiple times).That's my story. There's a lot more, because I'm one of the few, the fortunate, whose names are so much a part of their life story that almost every day has another, usually awesome and hilarious, memory about it. But, for the sake of brevity, I'll leave it at that.

I was in a high school human geography class and our teacher was talking about the City Beautiful movement. She mention how parks in big cities started putting extra armrests on their benches in order to dissuade "bums" from sleeping on them. She kept using the word "bums" and my childish self kept losing it. I was in tears near the end of class when we took a quiz. I put my middle name down as "bum," but this girl I had a huge crush on said she liked my middle name William, so, for her, I meshed the two words together. My friends still call me BumWilliam today.

My extended family & a few close friends called me Joanie, of course. Kids at school called me Cannonball! I had a boyfriend from age 12 to 18 who nick named me Muff. I have no memory of why but at the time it felt intimate and sweet.

I've been called many things in my life, both good and bad. The name that my parents called me was good-very positive and I loved it. What other people called me sucked and hurt a great deal. I really like this website because it helps me release the bad.

I have several nicknames at different times. Most of them are sound like my Chinese name "Tung". Some are due to my religion. The other is because I'm energetic. Some of them are making me feel uncomfortable at first, but I tell myself those nicknames as my own special signature so gradually I feel confidence and proud with those nicknames at every different period.

My dad called me Professor Princess because I was smart but quite feminine. I was kind of proud of it because I liked being called smart but I also kind of disliked it because sometimes my siblings bugged me about it.

My college friends called me LD, my initials. I liked the nickname as it gave me a sense of unique identity with this particular group of friends. It made me feel well like and accepted.

My current family (husband and children) call me Moose on occasion. I can't remember where it came from but I'm sure my husband started it. It's not a very flattering nickname but it creates a nice family bond to have this unique identifier. It helps that it is laughable, too.

When I was born my father called me a "White Rose in the Dawn!" My name has been Dawn Rose White ever since. He died when I was 5 years old so this memory is very special to me. In a sense it is a nickname and a real name because it wasn't my name until he said that. So poetic.

"4 eyes" when I got glasses. Teasing never really seemed to bother me. I was a strong person inside and I didn't seem to take it personal.